Bubba the pioneer

Bubba Smith wanted to play for the University of Texas, but that wasn’t going to happen then. Jerry LeVias was still a few years away from breaking a color barrier at SMU.

So Smith left Beaumont for Michigan State, and he had two requests: He wanted to live in a dormitory with regular students, and he wanted to room with a white student.

“I wanted to go to a place where I could just talk to this white person and see if we were different,” Smith would say later. “If we didn’t get along, fine. I just wanted to know.”

Smith was relaxing on the top bunk when his new roomie arrived with his parents. They would remain friends for years. But at that moment, when they first met, there was some tension.

The white kid was 5-foot-2. Smith jumped down, all 6-foot-8 of him. “They all just leaned waaaay back,” said Smith.

That told of 1960s Texas, where segregation was so strong that Smith had to leave to see another world. And that told of Bubba, an engaging, personable pioneer who didn’t give in to anger. It was a personality made for those times, and one that would serve him well in movies and commercials. Those who knew him will remember this with his passing.

But Smith changed this world not only by how he acted, but also how he played. At Michigan State, he teamed with another tall athlete whose ability was also undeniable.

George Webster would later become the fifth overall draft pick of the Houston Oilers, and he would show promise immediately in a preseason game. A linebacker by name, Webster caught Bob Hayes from behind.

Webster had to go north, from South Carolina, as Bubba had to leave Texas. Yet there they were on national television in 1966, playing against Notre Dame in a famous showdown of undefeated teams — with the kind of talent that any scout could see with just a glimpse.

Both men are gone now, with Webster dying in Houston at the age of 61. But what they and their peers did changed the culture.

How could UT — or any other southern school — continue to pass on these athletes?